Aesop's Fables: Caxton (1484)
4.14. Of the hedgehogge and of thre lytyl kyddes
(Perry 578)
It behoueth not to the yong and lytyl of age to mocke ne scorne theyr
older / As this fable sayth / of thre lytyll hedgehogges / whiche mocked
a grete hedgehogge / whiche fled byfore a wulf / And whanne he perceyued
the scornyng of them / he sayd to them / Ha a poure fooles & wood ye wote
not wherfore I fle / For yf ye wyst and knewe wel thynconuenyent and paryll
/ ye shold not mocke of hit /
And therfore whan men seen that the grete and myghty ben ferdfull and
doubtous / the lasse or lytyll oughten not to be assured / For whan the
toune is taken and goten by fortune of warre the Countrey aboute is not
therfore more acertayned / but ought to tremble and shake
 Caxton
published his edition of Aesop's fables in 1484. There are modern reprints by
Joseph Jacobs (D. Nutt: London, 1889) and more recently by Robert Lenaghan (Harvard
University Press: Cambridge, 1967). Lenaghan's edition is available at amazon.com.
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